Not Dead, But Wounded

Game 1 of the World Series is the kind of game movies are made out of. Maybe not classic movies like “The Natural”, but certainly one of those B movies with bad special effects like “Angels in the Outfield”. From that lousy inside-the-park home run that scared the hell out of me because I thought that Yoenis Cespedes did what he did on that ball not because he didn’t go after it until the last minute but because he couldn’t lift his arm, to FOX losing power in the fourth and the managers talking to Joe Torre as if he would have known how to get FOX and instant replay back when he barely knows interference rules.

I’ve long thought that this Matt Harvey start was key because of the long layoff. And sure enough he had trouble spotting the fastball so he abandoned it all together and tried to guile the Royals out of the game. But he found out in the sixth inning that the Royals are smarter than the average bear when they smacked him around the park for two runs and basically ended his night.

But Juan Lagares had the at-bat of his life against Kelvin Herrera in the eighth when he singled to center after battling him, then stole second off of a compromised Salvador Perez. It paid off when Eric Hosmer tried to sweet scoop a Wilmer Flores grounder but butchered it into an error, and suddenly the Mets were ahead in the eighth by beating the Royals at their own game: contact contact contact. And all of a sudden a shaky Matt Harvey start didn’t matter, because the Mets were on the right side of the bullpen wars with a lead in the eighth.

But Jeurys Familia became mortal again for the first time since that rainy day in July against the Padres, and Alex Gordon was prepared for the quick pitch that was coming his way as he belted a pitch over the center field wall for a game-tying, soul-crushing home run to send the game into a few extra innings.

The ironic part of this game was that all we heard was about how good the Kansas City bullpen was. And they were good. But the Mets touch up one of the best out of Kansas City’s pen in Herrera, and then get nothing off of Chris Young for three innings. Aside from the fact that it was a former Met doing the Mets dirty in the franchise’s biggest game in 15 years, this was the Royals’ emergency plan that shut the Mets down. And no amount of similar heroics from birthday boy Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon could keep the Royals from finally breaking through. And they did in the 14th as David Wright bobbled Alcides Escobar’s grounder to lead off the inning and pulled Lucas Duda off the bag. Then Ben Zobrist, who absolutely murdered the Mets with big hits in the 6th and 14th, singled to put runners on first and third with nobody out. It was then the Mets were cooked, as an intentional walk and a sac fly later, the Mets dropped to 0-1 in the series, and 0-5 all time in Game 1’s of World Series (including Game 1 in 2000 which Tuesday’s game felt a lot like).

Maybe they were cooked well before that. Maybe they were cooked when Mike Moustakas was becoming the new Craig Nettles or when Wright couldn’t belt a ball with runners in scoring position or when the Mets wasted three at-bats on Michael Cuddyer. Or when instant replay negated a David Wright stolen base in extras, which wouldn’t have happened if FOX’s truck was still out. Or when Daniel Murphy couldn’t hit a home run for the zillionth straight playoff game (as if the Mets could play a zillion playoff games. Don’t be silly.)

But in the first battle of the Royals vs. the Mets, it was the Royals who won out. The big reason they won out may have been because in the first battle of rust vs. rest, rust defeated rest as the two most important pitchers of the night, Harvey and Familia, were clearly rusty. I would expect Harvey to be much sharper in Game 5, and I would also expect Familia to pitch every game just to keep himself and his splitter sharp. And now, of course, Game 2 is ultra-important as Jacob deGrom goes against Johnny Cueto. The winner of Game 2 might very well take this whole thing. It’s certainly as must-win as must-wins get for the Mets.

Today’s Hate List

1. Ben Zobrist

2. Mike Moustakas

3. Chris Young

4. Eric Hosmer

5. FOX’s truck

P.S. Condolences to Edinson Volquez and his family, who waited to tell him that his dad had died until after he made his start on Tuesday. It takes an extra strong family to protect their own and my heart goes out to all of them.